Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Emulating Agricultural Disease Management: Comparing Risk Preferences Between Industry Professionals And Online Participants Using Experimental Gaming Simulations And Paired Lottery Choice Surveys, Eric M. Clark, Scott C. Merrill, Luke Trinity, Gabriela Bucini, Nicholas Cheney, Ollin Langle-Chimal, Trisha Shrum, Christopher Koliba, Asim Zia, Julia M. Smith

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Mitigating the spread of disease is crucial for the well-being of agricultural production systems. Implementing biosecurity disease prevention measures can be expensive, so producers must balance the costs of biosecurity investments with the expected benefits of reducing the risk of infections. To investigate the risk associated with this decision making process, we developed an online experimental game that simulates biosecurity investment allocation of a pork production facility during an outbreak. Participants are presented with several scenarios that vary the visibility of the disease status and biosecurity protection implemented at neighboring facilities. Certain rounds allowed participants to spend resources to reduce …

Environmental Decision-Making, Ezra Markowitz

Sustainability Education Resources

Over the past 30 years, there has been a growing recognition amongst environmental advocates, resource managers, policymakers and researchers that the underlying cause of most environmental, conservation and sustainability issues is human behavior. As NRC and ENVIRSCI majors, you have received extensive technical training in how natural systems operate yet relatively little training when it comes to influencing or understanding how people make environmental decisions that affect those natural systems. Recognizing the fundamental role that human decision-making plays in shaping the environment reveals a new set of tools and approaches for both understanding the challenges we face and confronting those …

Modeling The Influence Of Public Risk Perceptions On The Adoption Of Green Stormwater Infrastructure: An Application Of Bayesian Belief Networks Versus Logistic Regressions On A Statewide Survey Of Households In Vermont, Qing Ren, Asim Zia, Donna M. Rizzo, Nancy Mathews

College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences Faculty Publications

There is growing environmental psychology and behavior literature with mixed empirical evidence about the influence of public risk perceptions on the adoption of environmentally friendly “green behaviors”. Adoption of stormwater green infrastructure on residential properties, while costlier in the short term compared to conventional greywater infrastructure, plays an important role in the reduction of nutrient loading from non-point sources into freshwater rivers and lakes. In this study, we use Bayesian Belief Networks (BBNs) to analyze a 2015 survey dataset (sample size = 472 respondents) about the adoption of green infrastructure (GSI) in Vermont’s residential areas, most of which are located …

Towards Globally Customizable Ecosystem Service Models, Javier Martínez-López, Kenneth J. Bagstad, Stefano Balbi, Ainhoa Magrach, Brian Voigt, Ioannis Athanasiadis, Marta Pascual, Simon Willcock, Ferdinando Villa

Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources Faculty Publications

Scientists, stakeholders and decision makers face trade-offs between adopting simple or complex approaches when modeling ecosystem services (ES). Complex approaches may be time- and data-intensive, making them more challenging to implement and difficult to scale, but can produce more accurate and locally specific results. In contrast, simple approaches allow for faster assessments but may sacrifice accuracy and credibility. The ARtificial Intelligence for Ecosystem Services (ARIES) modeling platform has endeavored to provide a spectrum of simple to complex ES models that are readily accessible to a broad range of users. In this paper, we describe a series of five “Tier 1” …

Now I See: Photovisualization To Support Agricultural Climate Adaptation, Rachel E. Schattman, Stephanie Hurley, Martha Caswell

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Faculty Publications

Published with license by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. To remain viable, agricultural producers will need to adapt to changing climatic conditions in coming decades. Agricultural advisers play an important role in helping producers decide to adopt appropriate adaptation practices. Photovisualizations have the potential to complement currently utilized outreach and education strategies. This research uses a focus group approach to explore (1) whether photovisualizations can aid in decision-making about climate change adaptation, and (2) what characteristics of photovisualizations are most effective at conveying spatial aspects of adaptation practices. We found that photovisualizations generate rich discussions about ecological and economic effects …

The Impact Of Individual Decision Making On Campus Sustainability Initiatives, Aurali Ella Dade

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) have increasingly committed to become more sustainable in recent years. Despite this commitment, academic publications in the sustainability field assert that progress has been slower at IHEs than expected and that most IHEs have found sustainability initiatives difficult to implement. Comprehensive sustainability initiatives require cooperation from a broad set of constituents with diverse and sometimes conflicting goals. Creating a sustainable IHE also requires changes in both physical infrastructure and individual behavior. Any number of institutional factors can advance or limit progress towards these objectives.

Previous investigations have assessed individual case studies, compared IHEs in a …

Selecting Energy Efficient Building Envelope Retrofits To Existing Department Of Defense Building Using Value Focused Thinking, David M. Pratt

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense (DoD) has hundreds of thousands of facilities in its inventory, which consume billions of BTUSs of energy per year. Much of that energy is used to heat and cool the facility, and a great deal of this energy is lost through the building envelope. While new military construction works towards energy efficiency, the majority of DoD facilities were built over forty years ago with little regard to energy efficiency, and it is these facilities that have the greatest potential for energy efficient building envelope retrofits. There are hundreds of various new building envelope technologies available to …

Two Decades Of Water Law And Policy Reform Proposals: An Overview, Lawrence J. Macdonnell

Two Decades of Water Law and Policy Reform: A Retrospective and Agenda for the Future (Summer Conference, June 13-15)

22 pages.

Contains references.

Environmental Decision Making And Risk Management For Groundwater Systems, Janet D. Gough

RISK: Health, Safety & Environment (1990-2002)

With an eye to a specific application in New Zealand, Ms. Gough explores the use of risk management approaches for environmental decision making at strategic, policy, management and operational levels.

Can Managers Adapt To New Relationships And Roles Under Nfma?, Elizabeth Estill

The National Forest Management Act in a Changing Society, 1976-1996: How Well Has It Worked in the Past 20 Years?: Will It Work in the 21st Century? (September 16-18)

5 pages.